


You Both Have Such Great Taste In Clothes

by lizzieonawhim



Category: Legally Blonde - All Media Types, Legally Blonde - Hach/O'Keefe/Benjamin
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Romance, Self-Esteem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-18
Updated: 2013-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-23 22:26:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/931780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizzieonawhim/pseuds/lizzieonawhim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emmett finds out what a Marilyn is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Both Have Such Great Taste In Clothes

The evening started as most evenings did these days: Emmett showed up early, let himself in with the spare key Elle had given him after finding him waiting for her outside in the rain one night, and helped himself to a Red Bull; Elle entered about halfway through his second can, still calling greetings to a disinterested Warner.  Emmett found it was getting harder, not easier, not to roll his eyes at this; it was a combination of secondhand embarrassment and the same frustration he used to feel growing up as his mother dated loser after loser, never seeming to notice how poorly they treated her.  If Emmett had ever treated a lady that way, he would have caught hell for it, but his mother accepted such treatment without question.  Emmett wondered what Elle would have said if it had been one of her sorority sisters chasing after a guy who treated her with such contempt.  Still, he forced all this down and waited patiently for her to finish, knowing she wouldn't be able to focus until Warner was out of sight.

"All right," Emmett said as she (finally!) closed the door.  "Crack open that book and let's get started."

"Well, hello to you too," Elle said teasingly as she set her bag down on the bed.  "Hang on while I get Bruiser settled in."  Emmett nodded and started to skim his PDF version of the textbook as she bustled about for a few moments, making sure her tiny companion was comfortable and taken care of.  "Okay," she said brightly, once she had finished.  "What are we working on?"

"Have you done the reading for Callahan's class yet?" Emmett asked.

"Ah, not quite," Elle said sheepishly.  Emmett could guess what had distracted her.

"Why don't you get started on that, and then we'll go over it when you're finished."  Obediently, Elle pulled out her textbook and flopped down on her bed.  As she flipped through to the correct page, Emmett was suddenly reminded of something Warner had said that day after class.

"Hey Elle, can I ask you something?" he asked.

"Go for it," she said absently, tapping her fluffy pink pen against her chin as she began to read.

"What's Warner talking about when he tells you not to be a 'Marilyn'? What does that mean?"

"Oh." Elle chewed on her bottom lip, frowning at the open page in front of her. "It's something he said when he broke up with me -- that he needed someone who was 'less of a Marilyn, more of a Jackie.' It was his way of saying I wasn't serious enough." She smiled up at Emmett, but it wasn't a happy smile.

Emmett, for his part, felt his eyebrows jump towards his hairline without his conscious intent. "Okay, I don't really get the 'Jackie' reference, so let me make sure I've got this straight," he said, shifting to face her. "Whenever you do something Warner disagrees with, he's not only calling you a ditzy blonde, he's also deliberately bringing back memories of when he broke your heart?" 

"It's not like that," Elle protested.

"Oh, really? What's it like, then?" he challenged.

"I -- he -- he's trying to make me a better lawyer!"

"Really?" said Emmett, feigning surprise as he looked around the room. "So where is he then? Because the last time I checked, if you wanted someone to get better at something, you were supposed to help them learn, instead of just putting them down all the time." Elle was silent, staring at her pen as she fiddled with it. The confused, unhappy look on her face made Emmett feel like a jerk; it wasn't her fault her ex-boyfriend was treating her like crap. "Look, forget I said anything. You want me to look over that paper due next Monday while you finish your reading? Let me see what you've got." Elle brightened and reached over to rummage through her bag. Emmett, watching her, couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. He'd had a girlfriend once in undergrad who used to put him down under the guise of helping him "improve;" it had taken him a long time to realize what was going on, and even longer to work up the nerve to break up with her. Elle would figure it out eventually; Emmett just hoped Warner didn't come to his senses in the meantime. The casual way she seemed to accept this 'Marilyn' business made him think she'd spent too much time under that jerk's influence as it was.

"Here it is!" Elle chirped, shaking Emmett out of his reverie as she came over and set a paper copy down next to his laptop.  He read it through once, then pulled out a pen and started making notes.  Elle may have applied to Harvard for Warner's sake, but she'd been admitted entirely on her own merits.  Emmett was damned if he would let all that potential go to waste.

Even if she did have terrible taste in men.

\---

Winning the Brooke Wyndham case was not the end of Elle and Emmett's troubles, but it certainly did help. Although the name Elle Woods dominated the papers and Emmett Forrest was barely mentioned (as was appropriate, since she had won that case with very little input from him), it was well known in the legal community that Emmett had supervised. It wasn't long before he had a new job at a firm that wasn't quite as prestigious as Callahan's, but where he was respected and treated well, with the added bonus that he wasn't going to have to deal with the man who had once sexually assaulted his girlfriend on a day-to-day basis.

Emmett still couldn't quite believe Elle was his girlfriend now. He had almost thought he was hallucinating when she came to find him after talking to Warner and, without further ado, pulled him into a kiss. To go from almost losing her to kissing her within twenty-four hours had been almost too much for his brain to handle; he'd spent the rest of that day in a pleasantly dazed fog. Upon waking the next morning, he hadn't been sure whether it was all real or just a dream; but then the paper arrived, and on the front page was Elle Woods, and he realized that if the trial was real then so was the rest of it. Then his phone rang, and it was Elle, and the greatest summer of his life had begun.

But soon enough, autumn came, which meant Elle had to go back to class.  Work also picked up at Emmett's new job around this time, with the end result being that they were forced to dial down the intensity of their relationship.  Emmett still helped Elle study on nights and weekends, but there wasn't much time to go on regular dates anymore.  They both accepted the necessity of this arrangement, but Emmett could tell that Elle missed doing things together outside of a school-related context.  So did he, for that matter; he was just better at ignoring it.

Then, one cool October evening, Whitney hosted another party. Elle was ecstatic to receive a genuine invitation from Vivienne this time (with joking clarification that it was not, in fact, a costume party); she took it for granted that she and Emmett would attend, and he didn't have the heart to say otherwise. He remembered how the last such get-together had gone for her, and knew how much it meant to be invited in earnest. Emmett thought Elle deserved a reminder of how far she (and, to be fair, her classmates) had come; and though he wasn't entirely fond of parties, if Elle wanted him to be there, Emmett was happy enough to go.

So it was that Emmett found himself at 243 Mass Ave, sharply dressed in a charcoal gray suit and purple tie that Elle had helped him pick out, and standing next to his girlfriend at the center of a lively knot of people.

"…And of course, Emmett is doing great at his new job," Elle was saying. "Emmett, tell them about that case you had last week, where you got an eyewitness testimony thrown out of court."

"Oh, that was nothing," Emmett said, blushing. "He had a deal with the cops. The evidence was clearly inadmissible."

"But it was your cross-examination that got him to admit it," Elle said. "Emmett is a brilliant cross-examiner -- oh, look, he's blushing! It's totally true, though. Vivienne, remember the Brooke Wyndham trial?"

"Of course I remember," Vivienne said. "Emmett was the one who got the pool boy to admit he was gay."

"We got lucky," Emmett pointed out. "If his boyfriend hadn't made a scene, he would have played it off as a misunderstanding and we'd've been back at square one. Anyway, Elle's the one who realized he was gay to begin with; I was just going off her intuition."

"Oh, don't be so modest, Emmett," Elle scolded playfully. "Even Callahan said you did a good job that day."

"Whatever happened to Callahan, anyway?" Whitney asked. "I heard he's not teaching any classes this semester."

"Oh, didn't you hear?" Vivienne asked, a little too innocently. "He resigned over the summer. Something about his arthritis, as I recall." Emmett blinked; was that a hint of satisfaction in the tall woman's voice? Seeing the scrutinizing look on his face, Vivienne caught Emmett's eye and smirked ever-so-slightly before turning back to the conversation. _Well,_ he thought to himself. _Remind me not to get on her bad side._

From there the conversation moved on to other topics. "Elle, I'm going to go get something to drink," Emmett said after a few minutes. "Do you want anything?"

"Oh, Emmett, that is so sweet!" Elle gushed. "Punch would be lovely, thank you." Emmett nodded and turned to go. "Isn't he just so thoughtful?" he heard Elle say as he wove his way through the crowd.

"He's all right, for a man," said Enid, prompting laughter. Then Emmett was out of hearing range. He shook his head as he approached the punch table; trust Elle to treat basic good manners as the second coming of Christ. When he returned, Warner had joined the group.

"…Don't understand why you're being such a Marilyn about this, pooh-bear," he was saying as Emmett approached. "I'm just saying, everything would have been a lot easier if you had just told Callahan the alibi."

Emmett frowned and stepped forward to come to Elle's defense, but she beat him to it. "Okay, first of all, I have told you like a million times to stop calling me pooh-bear. Second of all, I am not being a 'Marilyn' about this. I gave Brooke my word, Warner. Maybe that doesn't mean anything to you, but it does to me." She paused, then added, "Besides, if I had given up the alibi, they might never have caught the real killer."

"Well, geez, there's no need to be so sensitive about it," Warner said with a nervous laugh.

Rather than responding, Elle turned to Enid on her other side. "Enid, have you ever noticed how, when a man knows you're right about something but he doesn't want to admit it, the first think he usually says is that you're being 'too sensitive?'" The women in the group all laughed.

"Well, I think Elle's perfect just the way she is," Emmett said, choosing that moment to reinsert himself into the group next to his girlfriend. "Here you go, Elle." He handed her a cup of punch and took a sip from his own.

"Oh, thank you Emmett! You're too sweet." Elle leaned up to kiss Emmett's cheek, making him grin like an idiot. Emmett noticed with smug satisfaction that Warner looked away during this exchange.

"Anyway, I'd say it all worked out for the best," said Vivienne. "Elle won the case, even without using the alibi."

"Because she got lucky," Warner protested. "And not everything worked out for the best. Emmett got fired, remember? Along with the rest of us."

"I quit, actually," Emmett said mildly, trying to force down the anger slowly growing in his gut. He did not like being used as ammo to belittle Elle's decisions. "And I like my new job."

"And Elle didn't just 'get lucky,'" Vivienne said scornfully. "Or did you forget how she got Chutney to confess?"

"I saw that on TV. It was very impressive," said Whitney. "I didn't know you had it in you, Elle."

"Thank you," Elle said, dimpling with pleasure. "Anyway, why are we all talking about this? That case is, like, ancient history. Enid, tell everyone about that debate you won in ethics today. That was amazing."

The rest of the party passed without incident; Emmett spent it largely at Elle's side, enjoying the way she sparkled at social gatherings. At the end of the night, Emmett went to fetch his and Elle's coats and came back to find that Warner had come to share further wisdom with her.

"Hey, I didn't mean to upset you earlier," Emmett heard the other man say. "I just wanted to show you some of the things you could have done better -- you know, so you can become a better lawyer."

"Warner, you don't make someone a better lawyer by putting them down all the time," said Elle.

"Well, hey, if you can't handle a little constructive criticism--"

"See, now that's exactly what I'm talking about," Elle said. "What were you about to say -- that maybe I shouldn't be a lawyer? That's not what I would call 'constructive,' Warner. Neither is refusing to admit you're wrong and calling me 'oversensitive' when I call you on it." She shook her head. "And you know what? I'm tired of you calling me a Marilyn every time I disagree with you. I don't know if you've noticed this, but sometimes, I'm actually right."

"So what _do_ you want me to do?" Warner asked.

Elle sighed. "I don't want you to do anything," she said. "I've been doing just fine without your 'help' for over a year now." She paused, then continued more gently, "We're not together anymore, Warner. You need to accept that."

Emmett was generally content to let Elle handle Warner on her own terms, but he knew things would only get awkward if he let this conversation continue with him nearby. He stepped forward. "Your coat, milady," he said with a smile, holding it open for her.

"Oh, thank you, Emmett," Elle said, sliding her arms through the sleeves. Warner took that moment to mumble an excuse and slink away.

"Are you two leaving already?" Whitney asked, having come over just as Elle was flipping her hair out of the collar.

"I'm afraid so," Emmett said with an apologetic grin.

"Emmett has to work in the morning." Elle made a face.

"And you have class," he reminded her.

"Yeah, but not as early as you," she said, elbowing him lightly in the ribs. Emmett shrugged in acknowledgement, grinning.

"Oh, no worries, I certainly understand that," Whitney said with a laugh. She moved in to hug first Elle, then Emmett. "It was wonderful to see you both. Elle, darling, I'll see you at next week's study group, won't I?"

"Of course! I wouldn't miss it. Goodbye, Whitney," Elle said. Emmett added his own farewell, opened the door, and followed Elle through it.

"Thank you so much for coming with me tonight," said Elle as they ambled slowly down the street. "I had an amazing time."

"Thank you for inviting me," said Emmett. "You know I like spending time with you."

"You don't really like parties, though. It really was sweet of you to come anyway. Oh, look!" Elle ran on ahead; Emmett followed at a walk, smiling bemusedly. "This is the park bench where you found me last year, that first night you helped me study. Remember?"

Emmett tilted his head at it; it looked just like any other bench to him. "You remember what bench it was?"

"Of course I do, silly! That night changed my life." Elle sat down on the bench with a nostalgic smile; Emmett sat next to her.

"You've come a long way since then," he told her, pride in his voice.

"Thanks to you," Elle said.

Emmett shook his head. "All I did was show you the way. The rest, you did on your own."

"So modest," Elle teased. She leaned her head on his shoulder with a contented sigh; Emmett wrapped an arm around her and leaned his head against hers. "My taste in men has definitely improved since then, anyway. God, Warner was such a pill tonight."

"Yeah, I heard some of that," Emmett said. "He still calls you pooh-bear, huh?"

"Ugh. Yes, even though I keep telling him not to." She shifted a little closer to Emmett. "I don't think he's over our breakup yet, which is just totally hilarious considering _he_ broke up with _me_."

"Bet he regrets that," Emmett said with a chuckle. "Almost makes me feel a little sorry for him."

"I'd feel sorrier if he'd lay off the Marilyn thing," Elle grumbled.  "Like, how is that even an insult?  Marilyn Monroe was both brilliant _and_ fabulous.  And she had great taste in clothes."

"Much like you, then," Emmett said, and kissed the top of her head. "I'm glad you've wised up about Warner. I never liked how he treated you."

"Plus, now you get to date me, right?" Elle said with a smirk.  She snuggled even closer, like she wanted to melt right into him.

"There is that," Emmett agreed amicably. They stayed there for a moment, listening to the crickets and breathing in the crisp October air, until Emmett felt Elle shiver against him. "We should get you home, Miss California. I don't want you to catch a cold."

"In a minute," said Elle. "But first…" She twisted in his grip until she could lean up to kiss him. Emmett hummed into it, savoring the warmth of her proximity as her lips closed gently over his. "There," she said as she drew away. "Should've done that the first time we were here."

"I wouldn't have complained," Emmett said with a smirk. Elle giggled. "Now come on, let's get you inside where it's warm." Carefully, they disentangled themselves long enough to stand up, whereupon Elle snaked an arm around Emmett's waist and he wrapped his around her shoulders. Warm and content in a way that had nothing to do with temperature, they walked home.

**Author's Note:**

> If you think about it, it's pretty messed up in more ways than one for Warner to keep saying that to Elle all the time. This started as just Emmett's reaction to finding out what 'Marilyn' means, but then I decided there was more to the story and went on to show how Elle ultimately shuts that line of commentary down. As a bonus, you may notice that as Elle's social status has increased at Harvard, Warner's has declined, which will ultimately help lead to his departure from law school.
> 
> It was only after I wrote this that I realized that Marilyn Monroe had actually slept with John F. Kennedy, thus the constant comparisons to Jackie Kennedy. Y'know what, though? I stand by what Elle says here: it's still not an insult to be compared to her. Marilyn was more than just the woman who slept with the President, and to treat that as her legacy does an immense disservice to a great cultural icon who had a lot to say about love, life, and human nature in general. And that realization provides an interesting parallel to Elle, because what she discovers throughout the musical is that she has the potential to be so much more than just Warner's girl -- or anyone else's, for that matter.
> 
> Besides, they both have such great taste in clothes. :) Sorry, couldn't resist!


End file.
